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First of all, I am hoping Huckabee flames out. I dont want another President preaching his religion,even though Clinton was the only one who had a photo opp every Sunday hauling that 40 pound bible around. This guy is the Dems only hope of winning. I think he is planning to run as a third candidate much the way Perot did,guaranteeing a Dem victory. Remember Clinton doesnt win the first time without Perot. Have any of you been to Arkansas? Drive through it once and you realize what a miracle Willy pulled off. It is one big disaster area and no one live there.

Second, I have said as an HIV positive person I would be against separation of pos and negs but it is an interesting theory. Swiss, if positives had been separated in mid 80s,and you were pos then,you most likely would not be alive today, either would I. There would be less infected in the US no matter how irrational and unrealistic your rants are. How do you reason with someone who refuses to listen,who refuses to look at both sides of the issue?

I am fortunate this course of action was not taken. Those infected since 1990 are payiing the price for me.

Everyone no matter their supposed risk factor. All women,men,and children. What is convoluted about that? Are you telling me the number of HIVers in US wouldnt be very small if every person who was positive was separated from the rest of US society back in mid or late 80s?

I knew someone else who thought like this back then. Who'd da thunk Jake an Fidel were on the same page.

Mr. Huckabee's proposal would have required a strong, and scary, element of coercion: Who would voluntarily be tested knowing that the price of a positive result could be "isolation" from society? Small wonder that, at the time, Mr. Huckabee's impulse to segregate victims of HIV from the general population was shared only by those on the fringes of the American right and, ironically, in Cuba, where Fidel Castro's dictatorship was pursuing a policy of mandatory testing and quarantine.

What do you want me to say? I feel very fortunate to be alive today. I am very happy a plan like Huckabees was never put in place. I believe a plan like Huckabees,which would need a very stringent testing program would have greatly limited the number of HIV infection in US. Yes,you would be putting the publics safety above individual freedom. So while everyone complains about emphasis on abstinence as a prevention, I would choose abstinence over being separated given the choice. I wonder how much the emphasis on abstinence has to do with keeping the right wing christians mollified? A lot.I am very happy todays argument is rubbers vs abstinence instead of abstinence or rubbers vs separation.

I'd like to jump in my own thread here and add what's probably a horribly politically incorrect comment, and ask folks to consider the very low rate of HIV infection in Cuba, comparaed to the rest of the Caribbean, exactly because they instituted a quarantine program early on in the epidemic. In fact, it's one of the few places where AIDS was remarkably contained, though I also assume that it has a lot to do with the somewhat extra isolation that it's government and economy has with the rest of the world, but only slightly.

I'm not sure what the current policy is in Cuba, but I know they were one of the few places that did this in the 80's/early 90's and of course they have excellent medical care. And of course, none of their policy was the result of wacko right-wing Christianists but a completely secular society.

Of course, I seriously doubt that I would have personally appreciated this happening to myself, but I digress.

If Wiki is correct, sounds like Cuba relied more on education and less on quarantine. Course what usually happens to people in Cuba, stays in Cuba.

From 1986 until 1989, HIV+ Cubans were quarantined to treatment centres (sanatoria). Most of the early HIV patients were heterosexual aid workers, returning from Africa. The quarantine system was relaxed in 1989, to allow travel between home and the treatment centres. In 1993, an outpatient program (el sistema ambulatoria) was set up which since the early 2000s contains the vast majority of HIV patients. By the early to mid 1990s, homosexual and bisexual men became the majority of Cuban HIV patients. The treatment centres (sanatoria) are still open for those who prefer them to living at home.

All HIV infected people are asked to attend a program called 'Living with HIV'. This program used to be held in the treatment centres, but is now mostly in the outpatient system, and assisted by peer educators, who are mostly HIV positive people. During the program patients are monitored to see if they are ‘trustworthy’ – that is, sexually responsible, and if their diet, self-care and medication is adequate. They are asked to disclose the names of any sexual partners from the last 5 years. Those sexual partners are then traced and tested for HIV. Certain groups are targeted for testing (HIV positive sexual contacts, blood donors, pregnant women, people with STDs). All testing is voluntary, but strongly encouraged amongst the target groups. All HIV+ patients retain their job entitlements and 100% of their salary, when they have to be absent from work. The stated aim of the program is to reintegrate all patients in their normal lives, and prevent discrimination or social rejection. Homophobia is recognised as a problem in Cuba, and is addressed through the HIV program (including school classes which begin at year 5 or 6) as well as through the National Centre for Sex Education. This education program includes posters, pamphlets and a television soapie which features gay, bisexual and HIV+ people in the family.

Cuba has undertaken extensive campaigns against HIV/AIDS focussing on education and treatment, and in 2003 Cuba had the lowest HIV prevalence in the Americas and one of the lowest ratios in the world. According to the Cuban National Centre for Prevention of STDs and HIV/AIDS (November 2005) there were 5,422 persons living with HIV (3,968) or AIDS (1,454). 85% of these were homosexual or bisexual men (HSH – hombres que tienen sexo con hombres).

Since 1996 Cuba has produced generic versions of some of the common antiretroviral treatment drugs (ARVT). These drugs were in short supply and imports were very expensive in the 1990s. However, since 2001, 100% of Cuban HIV+ patients have had access to a relatively full cocktail of HAARVT (high active retroviral treatment), free of charge. The death rate from HIV infection has been falling rapidly since then, and most HIV+ infected Cubans are avoiding secondary infections.

"Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee's 15-year-old comments that AIDS patients should have been isolated have so alarmed the mother of Ryan White, an Indiana teenager whose life-ending battle with AIDS in the 1980s engrossed the nation, that she has asked for a meeting..."

Make no mistake about this one - Huckabee is a dangerous man. He is dangerous because he appeals to the fears and frustrations of the same large segment of America that mindlessly bought into the "family values" con that the right wing has been running for so many years. He is dangerous because he appeals to the same mob mentality that stifles individuality and suppresses knowledge. If history has taught us anything, it is that people like Mike Huckabee, who sell themselves as sincere leaders who will lead the people out of the darkness, inevitably turn out to be the very same people who turned off the lights.

Yeah,you are right.there shouldnt be any emphasis on family values. They are worthless. I wonder how much Huckabees plan had to do with the con back in the day that everyone was at risk for HIV? But the left never cons. The left never takes individual freedoms away for the betterment of society and group.WTF are you talking about?I hope this guy is run out of politics but i view both DEM candidates as much more dangerous than this clown.A pox on Arkansas and all the slime politicians they have given us. I am sick of Clintons,and Bushes,and right wing christians,globalwarmers,those Americans who fight for American defeat in Iraq. Why are we going to the most impoverished state in the Country for our leaders? Cause no one lives there and no one knows how bad it is.Please,Please, no more Bushes,no more Clintons. Anyone else, I dont care.

Asked about gays in the military, for example, he didn't just reject the idea but added: "I believe to try to legitimize that which is inherently illegitimate would be a disgraceful act of government. I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk."

...But the left never cons. The left never takes individual freedoms away for the betterment of society and group.WTF are you talking about?

You are certainly correct that some of the left leaning or far left politicians are intellectually dishonest, and I have the same questions about Hillary Clinton and those like her that we all do, but I view this thread as being about Mike Huckabee and the very disturbing positions he has taken and which he now would distance himself from without explicitly admitting that he was wrong. We all make mistakes. What we need now is leadership that is not afraid to look us in the eye and say "yes, you are right and I was wrong when I did that, let's see if we can fix the problem". Savvy Amigo?

He is an ordained baptist preacher,of course he doesnt like gays. Baptists aren't real big on tolerance. Wait a minute ,isnt it something about the sinner being ok and its the sin they hate. Whatever,this guy doesnt have a chance. The media would love to see him as the candidate and are pushing him. As a Republican I hope this guy blows up real soon,but unfortunately he appears to have the gift of gab and is quick on his feet,must be in the water in Arkansas.

Thank you Thunter for mentioning that! I thought I was the only one that heard Rudy make that BIZARRE statement. Talk about pandering!

Oh, no...I caught it. This from the man who sought refuge in the home of some queens when his then wife (I don't remember which one, exactly...there have been several) tossed him out for cheating on her.

the national media is pumping the Huckster again this morning,talking about what a great candidate is he nationwide when the only real poll he appears to have a lead in is Iowa. Iowas population is a tad more than the wonderland of economic and social advances Arkansas. Why does the national media have only positive things to say about this guy? They usually destroy people who are Christian,especially right wing Christian. Hmmmm.

This is the kind of candidate that will drive moderates away from Republican party to the Dems. Conservatives will hold their nose in a general election and vote for this guy over any of the present Dem candidates who all are still selling the evil of wealth, raising taxes, and US defeat in Iraq to the uneducated rubes as the end all be all. Dems win. That is why national media is not attacking the Huckster the way they have attacked every right wing Christian candidate in the past. The media might also like his big tax and big spend history.

This is the kind of candidate that will drive moderates away from Republican party to the Dems.

Jake, Huckabee's popularity is being fueled by the Evangelical's and the religious right and has nothing to do with the media. You know the lib-er-al media that no Republican in his right mind would ever believe. Using convoluted Jake logic and your penchant for revising history smart Republicans should be able to see through the media's effort to elect Huckabee and would vote against him.

Unfortunately, the Republican Party sold it's soul to the religious right (and not in that good Jesus kind of way) and you are reaping what was sowed.

Has to be the Huckster. There must be something in the water in Arkansas that produces gifted speakers. This guy can really talk. I think people are sick and tired of all the religion talk just like they were sick and tired of all the scandals after Clinton. He appears to be very liberal economically, but very conservative in religion.

In 1998, Mike Huckabee was inspired -- possibly by events close to home to write a book called, Kids Who Kill. David Corn has a review over at Mother Jones, where you can see just how moderate the Arkansas preacher is when not yucking it up with the national press.

Expressing deep concern about the rash of school shootings in America, Huckabee set out to finger the culprits for our "culture of violence." His list is... interesting.

You might want to read that list again, just in case you thought you were hallucinating the first time. It's not that uncommon for the right to pass abortion off as sanctioning violence, but apparently environmentalism also causing our children to shot their schoolyard buddies. Oh, and it appears that AIDS is not a disease, but some horrible movement leading our children astray. No wonder those radical AIDSers need to be quarantined.

Not only does Huckabee feel free to create a laundry list in which environmentalism is equated to pornography, a few pages later he expands on his view of homosexuality.

It is now difficult to keep track of the vast array of publicly endorsed and institutionally supported aberrations—from homosexuality and pedophilia to sadomasochism and necrophilia.

Exactly which government program is funding necrophilia, or why environmentalism is akin to drug abuse, Huckabee doesn't say.

But then, when all you're doing is spewing forth a noxious stew of the most extreme right wing hate, there's really no need to explain.

""You don't like people from outside the state coming in and telling you what to do with your flag," Huckabee said in Myrtle Beach, S.C., on Thursday. "In fact, if somebody came to Arkansas and told us what to do with our flag, we'd tell 'em what to do with the pole, that's what we'd do."